Alarie looking to punctuate season with Ivy Tournament title
NEW HAVEN, CONN. >> The second Bella Alarie arrived on campus, Princeton women’s basketball coach Courtney Banghart knew she had a special player.
Alarie has lived up to every expectation in her first three years on a campus.
The junior forward won her second straight Ivy League Player of the Year award earlier this week and leads the top-seeded Tigers (20-9) into an Ivy semifinal game against fourth-seeded Cornell (12-13) at the John J. Lee Amphitheater on Saturday evening (6 p.m., ESPN+).
“We have a lot of momentum coming in here and we just have to keep building off of that and not let that overwhelm us,” Alarie said. “These are teams we’ve already played twice this year, so remembering the scout and what we did that was successful against them. Just kind of playing our game and using our win streak to our advantage.”
Princeton has won 10 straight games, although it sputtered out of the gate to a 2-7 mark with Alarie sidelined due to a broken arm.
Once Alarie returned, the Tigers took off. She’s well on her way to becoming one of the most decorated players in Ivy history after averaging 23 points and 10.7 rebounds per game. In 14 Ivy contests, she put up 24.5 points and 11.7 rebounds.
Twice Alarie scored over 40 points in a game, including an Ivy League record 45 in a victory over Columbia.
“This is a team with a great legacy,” Alarie said. “Having times when we went 30-0, we’ve won the Ivy championship, we’ve had sustained excellence in this program and our eyes are always on Princeton basketball. We just grinded through the Ivy season and we really did prove ourselves that we should be at the top of this league. I think that’s really awesome that we had people pave the way for that and allowed people to really pay attention to our program and this team this year.”
Alarie will eventually be a pro. Banghart has heard from numerous WNBA coaches this season.
“It’s not just physical, it’s the mental component, the toughness and poise component,” Banghart said. “Bella worked really hard this summer on her game . ... While all of her peers were traveling internationally and taking these really great off-campus opportunities and internships, Bella wanted to train. That was really important to her. Her growth as a player is something she’s really earned. It’s Bella putting the work in and trusting us. If you want to be great and want to be a pro, then you have to make these steps.”
NOTES >> Keep an eye on Cornell junior Samantha Widmann. The forward averages 10.8 points and seven rebounds per game. Widmann was a two-time Trentonian CVC Player of the Year at Notre Dame High.